


After the Night Fell

by AmityRavenclawElf



Category: Descendants (Disney Movies)
Genre: Celia Can Shadow Travel, Civil War, Demigod Uma (Disney), Espionage, Freddie Can Shadow Travel, Gil Is Not Just Dumb Muscle, Leader Uma (Disney), Magical Characters are Magical, Mal Critical, Multi, Power Struggle, Protective Gil (Disney: Descendants), Protective Harry Hook, Protective Jay (Disney), Protective Uma (Disney), The Scepter Influences Audrey, Uma Doesn't Forgive Mal, United States of Auradon (Disney)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-02
Updated: 2021-01-02
Packaged: 2021-03-10 23:54:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,597
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28485675
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AmityRavenclawElf/pseuds/AmityRavenclawElf
Summary: Mal lied about freeing the kids from the Isle of the Lost; Celia extinguished the ember. From there it was war. The major players: Audrey, Mal, and Uma.(How things might have gone if the others hadn't forgiven Mal.)
Relationships: Ben/Evie (Disney: Descendants), Chad Charming/Audrey Rose, Evie & Jay & Carlos de Vil, Gil/Harry Hook/Jay/Uma, Gil/Harry Hook/Uma, Gil/Jay (Disney: Descendants), Harry Hook/Uma, Jay/Carlos de Vil, Jay/Uma (Disney)
Comments: 5
Kudos: 46





	After the Night Fell

A shadow skimmed across the sea, just south of the Grimmsville peninsula, snuffing out the moonlight licking the peaks of the waves, as it passed. 

It was being pursued by an unkindness of ravens, but the race was won as soon as the shadow made it from land to water; Mal’s birds were known for their speed and stamina, but the ocean itself lapped at them when they flew too close, and when they rose high enough to avoid the reach of the waves, they lost sight of the shadow, which soared on to safety.

Celia Facilier reached the coast of Skull Island, at which point she was safe. Her physical body materialized from her shadow form, looking to any spectator like a fifteen-year-old girl was sprouting from the ground, dressed in a dark, hooded cloak. The crocodiles guarding the coast took only momentary interest in her appearance before they went back to doing whatever it was they did, while lurking ominously.

“You are so lucky Uma doesn’t know you snuck out,” a voice called, and Jay dropped out of a nearby tree and sauntered over. Even with all the buckles on his black vest and boots and all the zippers on his pants, he hardly made a sound.

“You mean Uma doesn’t know _everything?_ ” Celia teased, letting her hood fall back from her fuchsia French braids. She was one of the _very_ few who could get away with playful jabs at Uma’s expense, and to one of Uma’s boys, no less. (Strange, to think of Jay as one of Uma’s boys all over again; for years, Jay and Gil had been thought of as opposite sides of a coin, in a way: Gil, the one who strayed and came back; and Jay, the one who strayed and stayed gone.)

“She will, if you don’t knock it off,” Jay said, but he bumped his wrist against her shoulder teasingly, as he said it, taking all the sternness out of his warning.

Celia started through the woods, shedding her cloak (revealing the patchwork jeans and halter top that she wore underneath) and willfully ignoring Jay’s casual, near-soundless gait, following her. She had grown, since the day Auradon’s whole political system had gone haywire over a scepter, a nasty lie, and a silly little ember. Grown into her magic, and her talk, and her ability to think for herself. It was a tough trick, keeping her teenage rebellion distinct from the _actual_ rebellion of which she was a part, but she was managing _beautifully_ , in her own not-so-humble opinion.

It had been almost two years, and there still wasn’t a winner in the battle for power. There was only what there always had been: turf, alliances, and resources.

Audrey, best as anyone could tell, oscillated between Auroria, Cinderellasburg, Charmington, and Auradon City (which had no real tactical advantage as a base anymore, now that the museum had been thoroughly scavenged for magical artifacts, but she seemed attached to the place anyhow). It was best for her to keep moving, since the scepter messed with her mind; stay in one place too long, and she started to alienate her allies. It was a mistake she’d made with Chad, right off the rip, but fortunately for her, Chad had gone running back to her anyway.

Either he’d convinced himself that he could un-crazy what the scepter had made crazy, or he had fully given up on sense and decided that they’d be nuts together. Celia couldn’t say which; she didn’t bother to check the cards for that kind of thing.

The kingdoms that had already taken issue with the way Auradon was run (to name a few: Auroria, whose princess was denied the throne; Cinderellasburg, contrarian ever since Fairy Godmother threw her weight behind Beast instead of _their_ royals; and Charmington, who had no choice because they had Auroria and Cinderellasburg on either side and the only person with a claim to their throne had chosen to be a reporter or something) were backing her, and she had reportedly accumulated some of the Olympian gods, too. Geographically, Audrey’s domain was closer to the Isle of the Lost than they would have liked, but no one on Audrey’s side or Mal’s dared to cross the sea, and anyway, Audrey seemed indifferent to villains and VKs who didn’t bother her first. Her feud was with Mal and Mal’s allies, though Celia couldn’t help wondering if that was a “for now” thing or what.

Mal kept to the forest kingdoms: Camelot Heights, the Summerlands, and the like. She was backed by the more obedient realms: the ones that wanted to see Beast’s way of things restored. Agrabah, and so on. Not as much kingdom support as Audrey had, but they’d taken turns scooping up the cities with power vacuums and made their alliances with whoever was willing to talk. (Arandelle was sealed, and not talking to anyone, even the rebels.) 

More importantly, though, Mal had Hades- released in exchange for reigniting the ember -and she had Jane, who (along with Doug) had gone to Mal all confused and supportive as soon as Uma and Harry had revealed that the alliance was broken, that fateful night. As if the god of the Underworld and the daughter of Fairy Godmother weren’t enough, she had also offered freedom to any Isle kid willing to throw their support behind her. And of course she got Zevon and everyone who had gone gaga over the VK Day propaganda, along with anyone who didn’t hate her enough to shoot themselves in the foot over it; many of them had trickled Uma’s way, once they were free (Mal overestimating her own popularity again.), but not all. Most of the _young_ villain kids were with her, either willingly or because they weren’t powerful enough to leave. She still had the Smee twins. And Dizzy. She had Dizzy.

Also she had Ben and Evie. Ben enchanted, Evie just locked up in some palace or other, managing the impossible task of trying to be Mal’s conscience while also never frustrating her enough that she did something drastic, being nice enough to avoid hurting Mal’s feelings without being so nice that it made her suspicious, and also concealing the magic mirror with which she made nightly reports to Uma.

No one had wanted Evie in that position, but she thought she could save Ben.

“Where did you go?” Jay asked, as the first lights of their fortress came into view.

While the Auradon mainland had been divvied up between Audrey and Mal, Uma and her ever-growing crew had claimed the seas and islands. Making every single island habitable and secure had been a group effort, and an impressive one at that. 

Now, they tended to live in tunnels at night and in treehouses and huts during the day. At least, those of them on the day shift did; those who stayed awake at night and slept during the day, like Hadie, spent daytime belowground and nighttime above. Carlos had helped out a lot, as far as designing their many island homes was concerned. Celia had once overheard Jay telling Gil that Carlos had needed the distraction of designing, building, optimizing something; losing his devotion to Mal all at once had really cut him to the quick, and losing Evie right after, to Mal’s misguided “protection”, had been almost worse.

“I saw a vision,” Celia answered evasively.

“Sure. Visions happen _here_. I’m asking about the _leaving_ part,” Jay said. “You know, the part where I happened to notice that you’d shadow-flown to the mainland and then for some reason I didn’t rat you out? I’d like some context.”

“You know I’m almost sixteen, right? What did _you_ get up to when you were sixteen?”

“Oh, now I definitely need to know what you’ve been doing.”

Celia sighed. “I foresaw that some refugees were going to make a move, over on Mal’s turf in East Riding.”

“Make a move how?”

“Like, escape, without getting tossed back to the Isle. I went to distract the birds, so they could stand a chance of getting away. I only foresaw it this evening; no one could have gotten there as fast as me, not even the fliers. Uma would agree.”

“If Uma would agree, then why didn’t you _ask_ her, before you went?”

Celia eyed Jay. Jay could keep a secret, provided he wanted to, but _would_ he want to? He was a slippery one. Honestly, she wasn’t sure how Uma had gotten around to trusting him so completely; the guy’s whole deal screamed “double agent”. Celia read his cards regularly and saw no duplicity, and even still she couldn’t be entirely sure until she saw how he was around Uma.

Uma brought out different things in different people, and it always depended on who they were to begin with.

“I saw that Freddie would be there,” she confessed. They had reached the mouth of the tunnel, which made her more self-conscious about her words; when they had been walking, it had been easier to just talk, but now, they were waiting to part ways, and it was dead silent apart from her own voice. “I didn’t tell Uma because I still can’t see which side Freddie’s on.” She stared at her hands, annoyed that her cards weren’t in them and annoyed that even if they were, she still wouldn’t know.

“ _Was_ Freddie there?”

“I could feel her in the shadows, but she didn’t come out, and I didn’t have time to try to talk. But she wasn’t making any move _against_ them or me, so that’s something, right?”

Jay considered her words, then set his face in that expression of his, where it was impossible to tell what he was thinking but one just knew that whatever it was, nothing anyone said would change it. “I’ll tell Uma. You, go to bed; it’s late.”

“You know, it’s crazy how I suddenly have three more dads and a mom,” Celia sassed.

“Bed.” Jay pointed his finger authoritatively, while backwards-jogging away. “I mean it, Ceels. I could’ve missed Evie’s report over this.” 

“I didn’t tell you to wait for me.” Celia grabbed ahold of the zipline leading down into the tunnel.

“Oh, sure.” Jay gave her a playful shove, and she whizzed down into the darkness and out of sight.

Once she was gone, Jay allowed his playful demeanor to slip; his shoulders drooped, and the smile fell away. He let out a sigh before he started his sprint towards Uma’s cabin.

He was tired. He, Uma, Gil, and Harry weren’t on the day shift or the night shift, because Uma wanted to be awake for both, and so slept in small bursts throughout the day; Harry wouldn’t leave Uma to such a schedule without taking it on himself (and also wanted there to be no point at which Jay was with her and he was not); Gil wanted to be with both of them; and Jay was an early riser who also wanted to be awake for Evie’s nightly reports. Polka-dotting their periods of rest throughout the day made it easier for Jay to just…miss some. And have no one be the wiser.

Except Carlos, who would pester, “What _exactly_ is your sleep schedule again?”, always timing it for when he was around Uma, since Uma would immediately tell him, “Jay, go to sleep.”

But he could function, tired. Better than most, he thought; he didn’t start to get delirious for a while. Like Uma. Jay knew his limits. He wasn’t a lightweight, like Harry, who acted drunk if he missed one night of sleep.

Jay wove between the smattering of huts surrounding Uma’s place: her crew, who never slept in their own houses, but Carlos had insisted that having all those huts would give the main hut protection and create winding, convoluted walkways that would confound invaders.

Like anyone would invade them.

But Carlos was the genius, not Jay.

He strode up to Uma’s cabin. Gonzo was out front, playing bouncer; he grunted and let Jay in.

The front room of the cabin was as crowded as ever; members of Uma’s crew (new and old) were all milling around, chatting and playing cards and eating a late supper/early breakfast. A lot of them looked at Jay with suspicion as he passed, as if being Mal’s friend- even, for a time, her best friend -had left some kind of residue. Though he was sure his cock-of-the-walk and his refusal to wear a tricorn hat, lest it ruin his hair, didn’t help. Jonas pleasantly saluted him with a tiny dagger (a normal enough greeting, for pirates) while Desiree _glared_ daggers of distrust, and Jay grinned at both of them and slunk down the steps to the cabin’s underbelly.

(They didn’t look at him like that when Uma was around. If Jay had been a touch more vindictive, he knew he could have shut nearly all of them up just by saying, “Like you guys didn’t call her Shrimpy, before.” But he hadn’t spent years of his life being the untrustworthy one, the traitor, the sneak, Jafar’s snake son, to suddenly be uncomfortable about it now. Suspicion was like a second skin.)

“You didn’t miss it,” Uma called to him as soon as he reached the bottom of the stairs. (Jay was relieved and then worried in rapid succession; if he hadn’t missed Evie’s report, then Evie was late.) The captain, her first mate, Gil, and Hadie were all seated in a circle, on large purple rug. They had retrieved Uma’s throne from the Isle at the same time as they’d freed her crew (Hadie had snuck the remote from Mal, after playing nice with her for a bit; according to Evie, that had been a real meltdown on Mal’s end: learning that the son of Hades didn’t back her.), but it was at their base in Neverland. “What was Celia doing?”

Jay smiled slightly, remembering that Celia still thought Uma didn’t know what went on around here. The girl had passed over the sea, for crying out loud, and she still thought Uma was none the wiser. “She said she foresaw a skirmish on Mal’s turf and wanted to give the refugees a fighting chance by distracting the ravens. She didn’t tell you because she also saw that Freddie would be there, but not why.”

“And she still doesn’t know if Freddie’s our enemy,” Uma said, her fist tightening, probably at the sheer recklessness of Celia traveling through the shadows to confront someone of unknown allegiance who could also travel through the shadows.

“If she weren’t our enemy, she’d be here by now,” Harry said. The way the black makeup was smeared around his eyes was supposed to make him resemble a maddened raccoon or something, but the fact that it was smudged halfway down his cheek on one side betrayed that he had recently woken from a nap, which ruined the effect hilariously. (Not really. Jay liked to make fun of the little flaws, but Harry's flaws only ever heightened the impression that he was chaos on a leash.)

“I just think she’s staying out of it,” Jay said, taking his place in the circle. Most days, he jokingly tried to squeeze between Harry and Uma, but his sense of humor was always the first casualty of his exhaustion (and anyway, Harry was practically in Uma’s lap, likely to avoid that exact thing), so he just sat on Gil’s other side and tried not to feel like too much of a sap when his arm immediately went around Gil's shoulders, and vice versa. “Keeping her head down, being smart, so that she’s fine no matter who wins.”

“Or she’s working for Mal and knew that letting Celia go instead of dragging her off to Camelot would make us more likely to forgive her _and_ would let Celia keep her freedom.” Uma tilted her head back a bit, her face catching the light of the many light bulbs strung around the room and the blue glow emanating from Hadie’s hair. _Her_ hair was braided across the front- one thick braid, like a crown -and down the back, dozens of tiny braids, like streams of water shifting around each other. Every time she moved, it was as hypnotic as watching the tide advance and recede. “The sea reacts when Freddie’s near; she hasn’t been to a coast in over a year, which means she’s actively avoiding us.”

“But she didn’t stop Celia from escaping,” Jay said. “And as far as we know, she didn’t try.”

“Celia really needs to look where she leaps,” Uma said. “I told her, she helps us out just fine where she is; she should leave the skirmishes and battles to us.”

“I agree,” Jay said. “I still think Ceels should keep working on taking things or people with her, into the shadows; if she masters that, that’s a huge game changer.”

“She’s only managed to take _objects_ with her,” Uma said. “And she loses them.”

“Except her clothes,” Gil pointed out. “Her clothes always go with her and come back with her. Except when she’s, like, holding a jacket in her hands or something; then it just stays solid and doesn’t turn into a shadow at all.”

“Because she thinks of the clothes she’s wearing as part of her,” Hadie said. His dull, morose voice had dropped considerably in the past two years, which added to the dull moroseness. If being the one nobody trusted was Jay's thing and being chaos incarnate was Harry's, then being the person you always forgot was in the room was Hadie's thing. For a while, Jay had assumed that the reason he sat directly across from Uma was so that she wouldn't forget he was there, but he had seen her start conversations with Hadie when he was standing behind her, so his new theory was that Hadie liked to take advantage of the way their eyes were drawn to Uma, to remain as far from the spotlight as he could. “I’ve said, if she learns to convince herself that other people are a part or extension of her, she would probably be able to take them with her.”

“But if realizing that she’s holding a spoon, mid-shadow-flight, causes that spoon to get lost in the shadows, wouldn’t the same thing happen to a _person_ , if she stops convincing herself they’re ‘part of her’ for even a second?” Uma said.

“That is the risk, yes.” 

“Anyway,” Harry drawled, “convincing herself that other people belong to her sounds like a certain scaly, purple bint.”

“Well, if seeing things Mal’s way for an hour could help her free the trapped VK’s, then maybe that’s something we should look into,” Jay said. He took Harry’s skeptical look in stride; as guarded as Hook was, he didn’t really doubt Jay’s loyalty. Jay knew that.

Still, he wished Carlos were here. He and Mad Maddy were on the day shift, which was why they weren’t meeting with Uma’s inner circle now; they would descend these stairs in a few hours. And Carlos tended to be more receptive to Jay’s arguments.

“We’re not gonna risk dropping someone off in the shadows forever to save them from Mal,” Uma said.

“Aye. Fighting the dragon will be bloodshed, plain and simple,” Harry said. “Shadow magic won’t cut it. And dragging kids back and forth through the shadows definitely won’t….Squeaky and Squirmy are scared of the dark. Or were, when last we spoke.”

Jay had no answer to that. As much as he’d denied it to himself at the time, he had been thinking of Harry and Uma when he’d suggested to Carlos that they choose Squeaky and Squirmy for VK Day. Ironically, if he hadn’t done that, they might not have been with Mal now; they might have stayed with Sammy and eventually made it to the rebels with him.

“Harriet is halfway to Motunui,” Uma digressed suddenly. Since she was addressing Jay, he gathered that this had already been discussed among the rest of them.

“Cool,” he answered. “No speed bumps?”

And then he forgot all about his own unnecessary question, because the image of Evie’s face appeared in midair, in front of Uma. Once again, Jay experienced relief and then immediately worry: Evie appeared to be fine, not an eyelash out of place, and the fact that she still had the mirror meant her cover wasn’t blown, but her expression was extremely nervous, and the way her hair floated around her face suggested that she was hunched over. Perfect-Posture Evie would not stand hunched over unless something was going on that made her have to act fast.

“Just a minute!” she called out to someone they could not see.

She was writing on her magic mirror with lipstick, and the letters were appearing in the air in front of them, quick but legible: _Can’t talk, but fine. Sherwood._ Then the words and the image of Evie’s face vanished.

“What did it say? I can’t read that fast,” Gil said.

Jay recounted Evie’s words.

“So, Mal’s going west, now?” Uma said, looking genuinely confused. For a bit, Mal had been moving south from Camelot, and they had all assumed that she would try to take Auradon City; that would give _them_ a chance to move on the coast while Audrey’s forces were defending the capitol. But if Mal was going through Sherwood Forest…

“She’s not dumb enough to move on Charmington?” Harry said, gleefully. “That’s a war on three fronts!” Audrey’s forces on either side and Uma’s ocean on another.

“She’s not dumb enough,” Uma said, still wholly befuddled.

“If she wants something, there’s no dumb thing she won’t do,” Jay said. “But what does she want?”

“Father won’t like it,” Hadie said. “He wanted to go North and take Olympus. He said that if they spread through the mainland and kept pushing Audrey, she would be crushed between their domain and our sea.”

“Hence why he’s not the god of war,” Uma said, an amused smirk flicking across her face and riveting everyone's eyes to her. “He would have spread her too thin. She has just enough support for the turf she has now; her fight will be about acquisition of power, not expansion of territory. But why does she think…” (Uma waved her hand, and a glowing yellow illusion of a map of Auradon appeared.) “…that going this way…” (She dragged her finger from the point south of Camelot, where they’d last known Mal to be, to Sherwood Forest, to mimic Mal's imagined trail.) “…benefits her? It’s not a magical forest. There are no Fae Folk in it.”

"Evie will find out what she can," Jay said, removing his arm from around Gil so as to place his hand on Uma's still-tightened fist. "What are _we_ gonna do, in the meantime?"

Uma's other hand was already clasping Harry's. She worked her jaw a bit, then said, "The crew stays here; we're not all moving bases so soon. Either Carlos or Maddy can stay here with them; we'll discuss that when they wake up. The rest of the inner circle will go visit the Isle of the Lost, to stay close to whatever Mal's got up her sleeve."

"Cool, I get to go see my dad," Gil said cheerfully. "And see if the bloodstain's still there, from my fight with Lee Stabbington."

Uma nodded slowly, her mind racing behind her dark brown eyes. "We'll bring Celia," she added, after a few seconds, then nodded again. "Yeah, Celia's coming, too."

...

Like adjusting to seeing in the dark, Audrey was relearning how to, quite literally, see the world through her own eyes, rather than through the projection of sight that the scepter placed in her mind.

That is to say, she was learning to see _both_ , instead of just one. A double image, overlaid. A 3D movie without 3D glasses.

When Chad walked into her throne room, she saw her best friend of eighteen years, and she saw her henchman of two years, and the images were different and overlaid and her head hurt.

And he was saying something to her, and she tried to hear it with her ears, but Scepter Mind got to them before Audrey Mind did, and she was already reacting without her own permission. Not shouting or even raising her voice (Good sign.), but her low purr was threatening, and she thought her eyes might be turning green.

Chad was used to it by now. Chad knew how to adapt, how to be whatever he thought he needed to be at the moment: his mom's sweet boy and his grandfather's strong man and his school's shallow prince and his best friend's henchman. She was so glad he was here, and so terrified, and she wished more than anything that he would run away and join whoever the enemy even was anymore, but he would never leave her, and the scepter would never give up this kind of leverage over her.

Her emotions swole inside her; Scepter Sight turned faint, as she got ahold of her right mind, and Audrey Sight turned blurry, because there were tears in her eyes. She managed to lift one finger off of the scepter and started on the second (controlling her muscles was so hard; her limbs were so heavy), but quickly Chad ran to her, his henchman grin replaced with a wild panic and his hand catching at her wrist so fast, he almost touched the scepter, himself.

"Audrey, don't! You know what happens if you let go." There was so much fear in his eyes. Fear that she would fall into an endless sleep.

She really didn't want to fall into an endless sleep.

 _Then relax_. The thought was formed in her own voice, but she could tell her own thoughts from the scepter's like she could tell her own sight from the scepter's, though it made her head throb when she insisted on differentiating instead of just letting herself be comfortable behind the scepter's veil.

Even before she'd managed any control at all, the scepter hadn't hurt Chad. It had carried out her grudges: her rational ones, against those who had hurt her, and her irrational ones, against those who merely hadn't helped her. _My emotions, your choices,_ she had figured out some a point, and the scepter had glowed bright green, as if pleased. Chad wouldn't be hurt, at least not beyond repair, because she loved him.

That didn't mean he was safe. There was a lot of middle ground between "not hurt" and "safe". Middle ground like being locked in a room for hours at a time, because the scepter knew that he was claustrophobic, because Audrey knew that he was claustrophobic.

"It's okay," he said, and his eyes were wet, too, and it wasn't fair because he wasn't the one with the scepter in his mind, but her fingers relaxed, and his hand left her wrist.

_That's it._

Her strength to fight left her, and her lips formed a smile that she didn't feel, her grip on the scepter tightening. She had tried. She wouldn't be strong enough to try again for at least another week. Quicker, if she stopped fighting the illusion, so she did that; she let the scepter see for her. Saw things the scepter's way for a while. "Thank you, Chad," her voice lilted out, and her hand carded through Chad's hair, and Chad enjoyed it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading! Once again, conversations on Tumblr inspired me to write. Hopefully this was okay; I wrote it way too fast.
> 
> Please, please comment your thoughts!

**Author's Note:**

> This is the end of the fic, so far; leave a comment with your thoughts about the chapter, if you want to see it continue! Thanks for reading!


End file.
